Whole building life cycle assessment

Intent

To increase the use of products and materials with life cycles and ingredients that improve overall environmental, economic and social performance.

Requirements

* This credit language is drawn from the LEED v4 draft. Where other point totals are noted, this pilot credit is worth 1 point in total. *

Option 4. whole-building life-cycle assessment (3 points)

For new construction (buildings or portions of buildings), conduct a life-cycle assessment of the project’s structure and enclosure that demonstrates a minimum of 10% reduction, compared with a reference building, in at least three of the six impact measures listed below, one of which must be global warming potential. No impact category assessed as part of the life-cycle assessment may increase by more than 5% compared with the reference building.

The reference and design buildings must be of comparable size, function, orientation, and operating energy performance as defined in EA Prerequisite Minimum Energy Performance. The service life of the reference anddesign buildings must be the same and at least 60 years to fully account for maintenance and replacement. Use the same life-cycle assessment software tools and data sets to evaluate both the reference case and the design case, and report all listed impact categories. Data sets must be compliant with ISO 14044.

Select at least three of the following impact measures for reduction:

• global warming potential (greenhouse gases), in CO2e;

• depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, in kg CFC-11;
• acidification of land and water sources, in moles H+ or kg SO2;
• eutrophication, in kg nitrogen or kg phosphate;
• formation of tropospheric ozone, in kg NOx or kg ethene; and
• depletion of nonrenewable energy resources, in MJ.